Russia: Mass Arrests at Protest against Putin’s Pension Reform!

Free all arrested Activists! Drop all Charges!

Joint Emergency Statement of the Revolutionary Communist International Tendency (RCIT) and Marxist Group ‘Class Politics’ (Russia), 12 September 2018, www.thecommunists.net and https://mgkp.github.io/

On Sunday, 9 September, thousands of people went on the street to express once more their protest against the reactionary offensive on pension reform and other austerities policies of the Putin-Medvedev government. Despite the leading role of Navalnists in these protests, various activists including Marxists joined together to march in more than 80 towns and cities. People chanted slogans like “Putin is a thief” and “Russia without Putin.” They also held up signs that read: “These aren’t reforms, this is robbery” and “Billionaires are robbing pensioners.”

Despite the prohibition of holding the mass rally at Lenin Square in Saint-Petersburg by bureaucratic maneuver with "pipe break", masses participated at the rally in this place and disagreed to go into the sanctioned location (Udelny Park). Udelny park is so called "forest type park" on the very border of the city. Mass demonstration there just little bit more effective then demonstration in the forest. Hence, this protest was against the bourgeoisie state lawlessness.

The demonstrators at Lenin Square were met with brutal force by the police. According to OVD-Info, a human rights group which regularly monitors protests, at least 1,195 people were arrested throughout the country, at least 623 of them in Saint Petersburg alone. This is an unprecedented brutality towards the working masses! Some of the arrested, including senior citizens, have been beaten. The detained were forcible put at buses, where some of them were thrown into buses by their head on the floor. The Russian guard even brought the barbed wire to protect Lenin square to stop the determination of people to makes rally where they desire! Among the arrested have been also activists of the Marxist Group ‘Class Politics’ (MGKP) with whom RCIT has fraternal relations.

Such brutal repression against peaceful protests demonstrates once more the thoroughly reactionary character of the Bonapartist Putin regime. While the Russian government is repressing toilers and cutting social welfare, Russian imperialism is waging a bloody war of oppression against the Syrian people fighting against the reactionary Assad tyranny, makes deals with Erdogan and Rouhani to sell-out the oppressed masses! At the same time, the Putin regime supports the adventurist policies of Haftar in Libya and tries to intervene in several African countries like Sudan and the Central African Republic! All of these is happening at the time, when Russia is doing the most massive military exercise "East-2018" since the collapse of USSR and is preparing with China to challenge the World Order!

The Revolutionary Communist International Tendency (RCIT) and MGKP express their full solidarity with the protests against the pension reform and demand the immediate release of all arrested activists! All charges against them must be dropped!

International solidarity with the Russian workers and youth protesting against the pension reform!

International solidarity with the Syrian people fighting against Assad and Russian imperialism!

International solidarity with oppressed people around the globe!